Amnesty International loses lawsuit against spyware vendor NSO Group
Amnesty International has lost a lawsuit against Israeli spyware vendor NSO Group. The human rights organization says the software is being used against activists and wanted to enforce an export ban. According to the court there is no evidence.
The lawsuit was brought by Amnesty International and some 30 human rights activists against the Israeli Defense Ministry and the NSO Group. The Tel Aviv court ruled in favor of the ministry and the spyware vendor; the export license is not revoked.
According to Amnesty International, human rights are being violated with the Pegasus spyware sold by NSO Group. Among others, activists of the human rights organization are said to have been spied on by regimes with that spyware. NSO Group would not only supply the software, but also actively help governments with its use.
The Jerusalem Post writes that most of the lawsuit took place behind closed doors, because the Department of Defense sees the matters discussed as a risk to national security. According to the newspaper, Amnesty lawyers also did not get to hear most of the defense of the NSO Group and the ministry. Little is therefore known about the matter.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz writes that the judge hearing the case is convinced that the “surveillance procedures have been followed closely in the granting of export licenses.” Only after a ‘strenuous process’ would the government give permission to NSO to deliver spyware to other countries. The authorities would also continue to monitor and take action if they conclude that human rights are at stake. According to Amnesty International, a mountain of evidence has been ignored in the case.
At the end of last year, WhatsApp also sued the NSO Group and parent company Q Cyber Technologies in a US court. In that ongoing lawsuit, WhatsApp also accuses the company of being actively involved in deploying the spyware. With the Pegasus software, phones of 1400 WhatsApp users are said to have been spied.